Women Worldwide with Deirdre Breakenridge

Today's episode is the final part of a special series. We're podcasting live from Working Mother Media's Work Beyond Summit in New York City at the Marriott Marquis. The conference focuses on work-life balance, with a lens on evolving next-generation strategies, and it also salutes the 2017 Working Mother 100 Best Companies.

 

Today’s guest Jennifer Allyn is a diversity strategy leader at PWC. She's responsible for designing initiatives to retain, develop, and advance diverse professionals in her organization. As a recognized DNI subject matter expert, Jennifer has been widely quoted in the media. She also hosts a podcast called Pursuit of Happiness, a PWC podcast that explores how people juggle work, their personal lives, and the everyday challenges that often otherwise go undiscussed.

 

Follow along as Jennifer shares the importance of working with people who look and think differently from ourselves, plus how we can all care for ourselves at work to renew our physical and mental energy.

 

In This Episode

  • How to consciously and intentionally think about workforce diversity
  • The potential podcasting has to help companies share stories more intimately
  • The four domains of energy we all carry
  • How transparent storytelling can be good for a company’s wellness program
  • Why you need to build trust with your teams, with society, and with yourself

 

Quotes in This Episode

“We talk about some of the unconscious biases that we see in the workplace over and over again, and one is the similarity effect, right? ‘I'm attracted to people who are like me, because there's that instant familiarity, which leads to comfort and then to trust.’ That can be okay, right? That's not necessarily a bad human dynamic, if you will, but it's a problem if we don't see talent in the people who are really different than us.” —Jennifer Allyn

 

“We're trying to transform the metaphor from managing time, that we all have limited time— everyone's super busy—to managing energy. It's not about balance. It's about energy and renewal.” —Jennifer Allyn

 

“The notion of responsiveness means that I have to be instantaneously responding to anything that you ask from me, but that really diminishes my long-term capacity to think, to have that bigger picture, and to write, to analyze, to solve problems if I'm constantly on my device, or on my phone, or on my laptop responding to emails.” —Jennifer Allyn

 

“Everyone's struggling with similar things. They're making choices. They're making trade-offs. They're revisiting some of those decisions and saying, ‘It doesn't work for me now.’ The course of a career is long, so sometimes the strategies you used at the beginning aren't the same as you would use at the end.” —Jennifer Allyn

 

“We can't do everything. We all get the same 24 hours, and we have to manage our energy, not the time. I think that when you're clear about your priorities, both on the homefront and in the workplace, that is when people feel at their best, at their most productive.” —Jennifer Allyn

 

Resources

PWC

The PWC Pursuit of Happiness Podcast

Direct download: JenniferAllynonWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 4:14pm EDT